June 25, 2021
Iranian expatriates went to the polls in 133 countries on election day, but Iran said voters were assaulted in Britain, New Zealand and Australia and blamed Queen Elizabeth for the violence.
In a post on its Twitter account late on election day, the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights also hit out at Canada, another Commonwealth member, for barring some 500,000 Iranian voters from casting ballots.
“Today, the Iranian residents of Britain, Australia and New Zealand, who went to the polls to determine their own fate, were harassed and attacked despite police presence. These countries, along with Canada, which deprived half a million Iranians from voting, are all taking their cue from the royal office,” the tweet read, referring to Queen Elizabeth II.
Details of the alleged attacks were limited, except for a video of an attack on a female voter outside a polling station in Birmingham, England. The woman screamed loudly as a group of a dozen men attacked her, one appearing to be beating her with a flagpole bearing the flag of monarchial Iran.
The Foreign Ministry announced it had summoned the British ambassador to complain about attacks in Birmingham and London, but it said nothing about Australia or New Zealand.
Only a day later did Iran acknowledge that British police had arrested three people for the attack in Birmingham.
Later, the Mehr news agency carried video of an attack on voters in Sweden and the Islamic Republic News Agency said voters at a polling place in London were driven away by people who threw paint on them.
But the regime reserved most of its fury for Canada, which would not allow Iran to set up polling places anywhere in Canada.
The Iranian government was shocked, shocked that Ottawa would not give its permission. This was surprising because Canada similarly denied permission four years ago at the last presidential election.
Esmail Musavi, spokesperson for Iran’s Election Headquarters, accused Canada of acting “illegally” in barring Iranian polling stations on Canadian territory. But there is no international law requiring countries to allow foreign states to run polling stations on their territory and most do not allow it, seeing it as a violation of sovereignty.
Musavi said Iran had written Canada asking help in setting up polling places, but had received no “necessary” response, which suggested he understood Iran had no right to set up polling stations without Canada’s permission.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh announced four days before the balloting that three countries had refused to allow Iran to set up polling places for Iranian expatriates. The others were identified as Singapore, because of coronavirus restrictions, and Yemen, because of the war there.
Countries have the authority to set up polling places in their embassies and consulates because that is their sovereign territory, but most countries bar them from setting up polling stations in hotels and other non-diplomatic sites.
The United States, however, has never objected and Iran routinely sets up polling stations in mosques, on university campuses and in hotel rooms.
Khatibzadeh said Iran was setting up 234 voting stations abroad including 29 across the United States.
Mahdi Atefat, head of the Iranian Interests Section in Washington, DC, said one was in Buffalo, New York, for Iranian expatriates in eastern Canada and another in Oregon for those in western Canada. But Oregon is a long drive from Canada; he didn’t say why Iran was unable to set up a site in Washington state near the Canadian border.
He also said Iranian expats in Canada might have difficulty crossing the border into the United States because of coronavirus restrictions. That’s putting it mildly. Canada and the US have kept the border closed to “non-essential traffic” since Now Ruz last year and require a 14-day quarantine for travelers allowed to cross. (“Essential travel” allows National Hockey League teams to enter the US but not Iranian voters.)
Atefat said six government staff would be stationed at each of the 234 polling stations around the world, including one observer representing the Council of Guardians. More than half the polling sites are in Iranian embassies and consulates.
Khatibzadeh said more than 3 million Iranians living abroad are eligible to vote. When the regime has announced the votes cast abroad which it didn’t do four years ago they have only amounted to a few tens of thousands.
He did not announce the countries where ballot boxes would be available, but said they would be set up in every country where Iran has a diplomatic mission.
